This year, SciStarter had some familiar faces helping us out at the Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL) Conference: librarians who use SciStarter themselves.
Amanda Arrington, Assistant Director of Helen Keller Public Library, and Library Director Elisabeth Gullett represented SciStarter at the conference, sharing a poster and representing us at our exhibitor booth. SciStarter’s Director of Partnerships, Tara Cox, joined them and also gave a lightning talk.
For Amanda, being on the other side of the conference booth turned out to be a great way to meet other librarians and talk about what her library is actually doing with citizen science.
“It was a great experience getting to represent SciStarter at ARSL 2026!” she said. “I was able to connect with other partner libraries and meet other incredible librarians that were interested in bringing high-interest STEAM programming to their library by joining the SciStarter network.”
Librarians Learning from Librarians
A lot of the conversations at the booth came back to the SciStarter citizen science kits that Helen Keller Public Library circulates. Librarians wanted to know what was in them, what they cost, how well the materials held up, and whether they could do something similar at their own libraries.
In quite a few cases, they already had what they needed.
“A majority of librarians realized that they already circulate items, like handheld microscopes or phone camera lenses, and could easily add SciStarter projects to their offerings at no cost to them,” Amanda said.
That’s also part of what made having Amanda and Elisabeth at the booth so useful. They weren’t talking about citizen science in the abstract. They could share what they had tried at their own library and answer the kinds of practical questions that come up when another librarian starts thinking, Could we actually do this here?
“I think it was extremely beneficial to have real SciStarter users working the exhibitor booth,” Amanda said. “It made it feel like a connection with a colleague.”
Amanda made a point of telling visitors that she wasn’t a SciStarter employee. She was there because she’s a librarian who enjoys using SciStarter and wanted other libraries to know about it. And, of course, there wasn’t anything to buy – SciStarter is free!
There were some nice surprises, too. Librarians who were already familiar with SciStarter stopped by the booth to say hello and share what the platform had helped them offer in their own communities!
Want to join us at a future conference?
We’d love to have more librarians do what Amanda and Elisabeth did at ARSL.
If there’s a library conference you already attend, there are plenty of ways to get involved. You could submit a session or poster, represent SciStarter at an exhibit, or simply share how you’ve used citizen science at your library. We can help with the pieces that make conference participation easier, including proposals, slides, posters, outreach materials and talking points. SciStarter can also cover conference registration fees for accepted presenters.
And representing SciStarter doesn’t necessarily mean missing the rest of the conference. At ARSL, the poster and exhibitor sessions didn’t overlap with presentations, so Amanda and Elisabeth could still attend sessions, meet people and bring home ideas for their own library.
“I would definitely recommend representing SciStarter at a conference if you are given the opportunity!” Amanda said. “It’s a great way to connect with others in your field and share ideas!”
Have a conference coming up? Let us know. Whether you already have an idea or have no idea where to begin, we’re happy to help you figure out how SciStarter could be part of it.
